1. Field of the Invention
Systems and Methods of the present invention relate to welding and joining of hard to weld metals, and more specifically to narrow-groove welding/joining of hard to weld metals.
2. Description of the Related Art
The joining/welding of weld joints of workpieces using a narrow groove technique can be difficult. For example, FIG. 1A illustrates a weld joint 10 that has a square groove with narrow spacing. Exemplary applications for such a joint is the welding/joining of hard to weld metals such as hard to weld steels, high carbon steels, etc. where minimum admixture is desirable but complete sidewall fusion is required. One example of a hard to weld joint is found in brake rotors, but of course, there are numerous other applications in which narrow-groove welding of hard to weld metals is desired. Conventional welding/joining methods can result in the weld 20 bridging the narrow gap resulting in a weak weld joint, as there is no penetration into the weld (see FIG. 1B). In addition, because the weld bead at the top of the weld is ground flush with the workpiece surface in many applications, complete fusion with the sidewalls is required for these narrow-groove applications. To minimize the bridging and achieve deeper penetration, higher heat input can be used to weld the joint, but this can result in excessive penetration of the joint edge and excessive admixture with the base material of the workpiece (see weld 20′ of FIG. 1C). Excessive mixing of the weld metal and the base metal is especially problematic when the base material is composed of high-carbon steel, e.g., such as that found in brake rotors, making the resulting weld bead crack sensitive. Accordingly, sufficient but not excessive sidewall bonding is desirable to achieve sufficient joint strength.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.